


i can be your hero

by plinys



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: ACE Comic Con, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 15:26:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20641409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/pseuds/plinys
Summary: She knows logically that long distance relationships don’t work out.That despite the fact that Sara spams her with heart emojis when she’s bored, and wishes her good morning every day, and calls her baby every time they text - that it doesn’t mean anything.It’s just things that friends do.[or: Ava and Sara are fandom mutuals and meet for the first time at a con]





	i can be your hero

**Author's Note:**

> there's a Very Tiny sm au that leads up to this fic, which was prompted by the lovely grace, you can check the sm au out [ here ](https://twitter.com/plinys/status/1158508476865417217?s=20), though it's really not necessary to understand the plot!

“There’s nothing to be nervous about.”

“Easy for you to say,” Ava replies. 

It’s about the third time they’ve made a loop through the airports traffic circle, waiting for two passengers from a  _ slightly delayed  _ flight to make their way out of the airport. Ava would try to blame her nervousness on that, on the airline employees that keep shooting dirty looks at her every time she slows down in the Spirit pick up lane thinking that she might have seen a familiar blonde. 

They both knew better. 

“I mean, it’s not like she’s going to hate you,” Nora says after a moment. Bringing Ava’s biggest fear back to the forefront of her mind and almost making Ava wish she had left Nora behind with Nate and Ray as they tried to sort out an early check in on their hotel room.

But Ava had needed someone able to check their phone for the inevitable  _ We’re here  _ text, while she drove, so stealing Nora away had seemed like a good idea at the time. 

“She might,” Ava insists. 

“Impossible, nobody can hate you,” Nora counters. 

“The vast number of people who have me blocked on twitter would disagree.” 

“Okay, fair,” Nora concedes, “But Sara is different.” 

“Yes, exactly, Sara is  _ different _ , this is so much more than just-”

“Oh,” Nora says loudly cutting her off, “They’re here!”

Rationally, Ava knows that she has no reason to panic. That everything will be fine and normal and that they’ll all be just as good friends in real life as they all are online, but for a moment it’s hard to think. Because, even though she’s talked herself through this plan multiple times over the past week, there was one thing that Ava always pushed down - her  _ feelings  _ for Sara. 

She knows logically that long distance relationships don’t work out.

That despite the fact that Sara spams her with heart emojis when she’s bored, and wishes her good morning every day, and calls her baby every time they text - that it doesn’t mean anything.

It’s just things friends do.

Friends.

She shouldn’t be this anxious about meeting a friend.

Shouldn’t be more worried about meeting Sara than she was about meeting the actual celebrities that she had paid far too much money to meet later today. 

“Breathe,” Nora reminds her, as they make the final turn towards the pick up zone, for the last time. 

Just the act of pulling over when she spots Sara (and Zari) has Ava already more nervous than she would care to admit. 

“You’re not breathing,” Nora points out.

“I’m trying,” is all Ava manages, before she forces herself to plaster a smile onto her face and hop out of her car. 

This much she can do, move efficiently, apologize to the traffic circle attendant, pop the trunk of her car, take the bags from her friends, act like everything is normal and -

“Hey.”

One simple word, from Sara’s lips, spoken to her for the first time in real life instead of just through a computer or cell phone screen, somehow has the power to change everything. 

Stealing Ava’s breath away, and making her the happiest that she’s been in a long time all at once. 

“Hey,” Ava replies, her own a weak echo of Sara’s greeting.

But Sara is here, finally in front of her, smiling wide and looking beautiful even though her hair is in a messy bun and she’s dressed in pajamas after a long overnight flight, and  _ oh,  _ how many nights did she spend unable to sleep thinking about this woman, only to finally meet her. 

This shouldn’t be awkward.

They’ve known each other for years.

Ava has beta’d Sara’s weak werewolf sex stucky fic, and  _ yet _ … 

For a moment, they just stare at each other, ignoring everything else around them, and then Sara moves. Closing the distance between the two of them to hug Ava. She fits there perfectly tucked against Ava’s chest and squeezes just tight enough that it somehow manages to be everything she’s waited so long for, but also not nearly enough. 

Ava wants so much more than just a hug.

Something that is easier to admit to herself now that she has Sara here in front of her. 

Sara pulls back after a moment, grins at her far too wide, and says, “Don’t be a stranger, Aves.”

“Sorry,” Ava says, not even sure what she’s apologizing for, but feeling the need to. As if that one word will make this whole situation less anxiety inducing for her. “Sorry, I’m awkward, and anxious and-”

“She’s always like this,” Nora calls out, through the rolled down window in the passenger seat. “Everyone online thinks she’s so cool, but I can confirm, real Ava Sharpe is one hundred percent lame™.” 

Sara laughs at that. 

A sound that could easily become one of Ava’s favorite sounds. 

“Did you just say ‘TM' outloud?”

“It’s one of my charms,” Nora replies, turning back to her phone a moment later, “I’m also not getting out of shotgun, so pile yourselves in the backseat accordingly. “

“I’m Zari, by the way,” Zari chimes in, “You know, just in case anyone forgot I was here too, because they were too busy staring longingly into each other’s eyes or-” 

Thankfully a car horn cuts her off, the other people trying to pick up their friends and family from the airport getting frustrated with how long Ava has been out of her car.

“Sorry,” Ava shouts in the vague direction of the cars. 

“She says that a lot too,” Nora chimes in again. “You get used to it.” 

Ava tries not to read into the fact that as Sara goes to open the door to the backseat of the car she replies, “Can’t wait to get used to it.” 

*

“Exactly  _ how  _ rich are you,” Sara shouts from the vague direction of the hotel bathroom. 

Ava is trying not to pay attention to whatever is going on in here and is instead sitting cross legged on the corner of one of the many plush hotel beds in the literal  _ suite  _ that Ray and Nora had gotten for the con weekend. 

For what it’s worth, looking around the hotel room, Sara’s question is a valid one. 

Ray shrugs, though Sara certainly can’t see him before replying, “I mean, this really isn’t even all that fancy.”

Zari, who has made herself at home on her own bed and already has her laptop up and running to do  _ something _ (probably live tweeting this whole disaster of an encounter) just replies - “How many photo ops do the two of you have this weekend?”

“Seventeen,” Nora replies, casually, as if she wasn’t talking about spending thousands of dollars. 

“There we go,” Zari replies. 

Sara pops her head out of the bathroom at that, a hair straightener in her hand, brandished like a weapon as she asks, “Do rich people deserve rights, be honest?” 

“No,” Ava and Zari both reply at the same time. 

Nora shakes her head, “See this is the kind of disrespect that gets you kicked out of our room!”

“We won’t kick you out,” Ray reassures her. 

As if Nora’s threats were ever anything more than empty.

Nora, of course, ignores him - “And then consider, where would you go? You’d be lost, roomless and alone, stranded on the dangerous streets of Rosemont, forced to take shelter in the mall’s parking garage or under the freeway overpass, surviving off of abandoned deep dish pizza and-”

“I’ll just stay with Ava,” Sara cuts her off. 

So simple.

So casual.

As if that solved everything.

As if that would be possible.

As if Ava wouldn’t implode at the mere thought of Sara in her apartment. 

“Ava wouldn’t abandon me right?” 

“Yeah, of course, I got you,” Ava says, “I’ve got like four air mattresses.” 

“Why would I need an air mattress,” Sara asks. 

But instead of waiting for an answer, slips back into the bathroom to return her attention to her hair and preparing for her cosplay. 

Ava waits a moment before texting the group chat, kindly labelled ‘ _ Hotel Squad + Ava - Sara’ _ with:  _ So, that was flirting right??? _

The replies from the people literally sitting around her come in instantly. 

Zari:  _ Oh god you really are oblivious aren’t you _

Nora:  _ She’s a lost cause  _

Ray:  _ I think so!! _

Nate:  _ I’m not even there but I vote yes to flirting! Get that good coochie _

Nora bursts out laughing at that, and it’s all Ava can do to shoot a glare her way, already knowing that it’s far too late. 

Especially when Sara peers out from the bathroom once more, this time her hair is nearly all straightened, “What’s so funny?” 

Ava’s still not entirely convinced that Nora isn’t part demon, especially when the other woman just smiles and says, “You haven’t met Nate yet, have you? You’re going to  _ love  _ him!”

*

** _ava _ ** _ @AgentsOfAva:  _ How did I ever think I was going to survive this weekend????? 

“Hey, don’t be nervous.” 

“Easy for you to say,” Ava replies. 

Because Sara doesn’t get it.

Doesn’t understand  _ why  _ Ava is nervous. 

They’ve managed to meet up with the whole group now, waiting to go through the VIP check in queue, all of their friends mingling perfectly. So many of them were people that Ava, with her strong unwillingness to get on a plane, only saw once or twice a year for cons like this one. But despite the fact that they rarely all saw each other in person, everyone seems all too able to fit together at once, forming a squad without any effort at all.

As if the last time they were all together was weeks ago, not months. 

Even Zari, a brand new addition to their group, has seemed to fit in at once. Making instantly friends with Charlie and Nate. 

And then there was Ava… 

“Look,” Sara replies. “I know I am the epitome of confidence, because I mean,  _ look at me _ , but Bria Larson is really just another attractive blonde and as two other attractive blondes, it’s illegal for us to be nervous about meeting her. So tough it up buttercup, we got this.” 

It’s not much of a pep talk. 

Sara clearly not any good at them. 

But she’s trying and for that much Ava can’t really fault her. 

Plus, she would be lying if she said that Sara’s attempt to make her less nervous didn’t bring a small smile to her face. 

Even if she completely missed the reason for Ava’s gay panic tweet.

Because somehow Sara had completely missed the fact that standing before Ava in her Captain Marvel cosplay, Sara is ten times more anxiety inducing than any celebrity that starred in a movie maybe but the Russo brothers could ever be.

“What if I’m not nervous because of Brie?”

“Ah,” Sara lets out a small noise, as if suddenly understanding. “It’s Tessa then, and in that case sadly we’re a lost cause and just going to have to accept our fate as gay messes. RIP us.” 

  
  


*   
  


“All we do at this con is wait in lines,” Sara complains, but it’s a light hearted complaint, she’s happy, sitting down on the dirty convention floor. 

Ava always thought that this convention center was a mess.

Always hated the ugly  _ home depot  _ lighting

But there’s something about Sara that manages to make an otherwise ugly place look good. 

Or maybe it was just the way Ava couldn’t help but stare at her, especially now that all of their friends had been sorted off into their various different lines to whichever celebrities they were meeting. 

“Line Con 2019.” Ava agrees. 

“But you know,” Sara says.

So casual.

So easily.

“I don’t mind waiting because I’m with  _ you,”  _ Sara continues, “Even if you are, even more unfairly tall from this angle.” 

Usually Ava refuses to sit, only because she knows that once she does, she will be unable to stand up again. But Sara makes a compelling point, holding her hand up in an offer to tug Ava down.

“They’re just going to make us stand up again in five minutes,” Ava offers her token protest, even as she slips her hand into Sara’s and allows the other woman to tug her down onto the floor.

(Just as Ava had predicted the con volunteer comes around about five minutes later to force them all to stand up and get  _ close like sardines  _ to fit more people into the line. 

And Ava only panics a little when Sara presses closer to her as the line gets more full. 

Just  _ a little _ .)

  
  


*   
  


There’s a panel that she’s supposed to be paying attention to.

Two beautiful women that Ava very much admires sitting up on the stage talking. 

Charlie and Gary somewhere up there in the line to ask questions that Ava promised she would try to record the answers of, because out of the group of them she has the best phone and the steadiest hands.

Usually.

Right now though Ava isn’t certain that her hands would be steady at all, because Sara is sitting next to her, managing to sprawl over the two suddenly open seats, so that her feet are up in Ray’s lap, meanwhile her head is tilted back to rest right against Ava’s. 

People around them are shooting them dirty looks, and normally the overt levels of politeness that have been instilled in Ava since she was a child (thanks Midwestern upbringing) would compel her to apologize and force Sara into a normal sitting position. 

But for a moment she doesn’t care.

She doesn’t care about anything other than Sara.

How she could believe, before this day, that her feelings for Sara really could have just stayed platonic after all this time, knowing her attraction for the woman currently lying in her lap, was beyond her. But Ava had fallen. In the course of a few hours, watching the way Sara smiled so easy and happy, the way she talked with actresses she admired with such easy and certainty, as if nothing made her nervous at all, meanwhile Ava was a mess of nerves. And the way she did this, somehow sensed Ava’s nervousness, and found her way into her space, held onto her hand just a little bit tighter, grounded Ava with her presence. 

Meeting Brie, or Tessa, or even accompanying Ramona when she had freaked out over meeting Tom - none of that had anything on the  _ real  _ star of this weekend. 

Sara Lance matters so much more than anyone she had dished out hundreds of dollars for a few seconds with. 

Because after having had Sara for so many moments and seconds, the thought that soon she would be leaving, boarding a plane and going back to a tiny icon that she saw on twitter or a daily snapchat to keep up their streak… 

She couldn’t just let Sara leave without letting her know how she felt. 

There’s no way she would survive that. 

“Hey, babe,” Sara says, cutting off her train of thought, Ava’s hands stilling where they had been mindlessly braiding Sara’s hair. “I think Charlie’s next.” 

Later.

She’ll tell Sara later.

For now, she shifts slightly to pull her phone out of her pocket and turn the focus back to their friends. 

  
  


*   
  


Day one of the con is over now, the herd of them finally leaving the convention center only when the lights began to dim, and it suddenly hits Ava that other than the few protein bars that experienced con goers Gary and John had packed, and the absurd amount of bananas that Nora had brought to prove that she could snap them in half (much to Sara’s horror), none of them had really had anything close to a proper meal.

Which was why they were now all crossing the parking garage, with various levels of enthusiasm. 

“We always eat at the bowling alley,” Nate, the local, explains. “Because it’s the cheapest place that verifies parking and also free wifi.” 

“I thought you had unlimited data,” Zari chimes in. 

While Nate nods at her words in confirmation, “But it’s the principal of the thing.”

“Sure, Jan.”

“Look, I would be open to other options, if anyone had a better idea,” Nate says, slightly on the defensive. 

Though Ava tunes out the two of them soon enough, focuses instead on Sara, who is still holding her hand and chatting excitedly with Gary about all the different people that they met the weekend. She can already see that he is trying to convince Sara to go to more cons, and Sara nodding along agreeing to it a little. 

“I mean,” she finds herself joining in on their conversation. “I wouldn’t mind you coming back to the Midwest, we get about three good cons a year, but my couch is always open to you.” 

It seems so easy to offer it now.

When months before planning for this con she had been so hesitant. 

Gary jumps in before Sara can reply, “Speaking of which, why isn’t she staying your place this weekend?” 

As if he doesn’t know the answer. 

Doesn’t know about all her nerves when it came to Sara.

Ava shoots Gary a glare over the top of Sara’s head.

But Sara doesn’t seem bothered by his question, just shrugs her shoulders, “I guess she needed to make sure I wasn’t the next Craig’s List Killer.” 

“You know, based on all the true crime podcasts she listens to, Ava might have actually been into that,” Gary replies with a laugh. 

“I promise I’m not into murder,” Ava butts in when Sara joins him in laughing. 

“Not even the sexy kind,” Sara turns her focus completely to Ava. “Not even if  _ I  _ was the one doing it.” 

“There’s no such thing as sexy murder,” Ava insists. 

“Uh, excuse you, Gone Girl (2014) would beg to differ!”

“You’re not going to Amy Dunne me!”

“I might! You don’t know! I may be small but I’m scrappy! I have abs! I could commit a crime!” 

Sara’s voice echoes around the parking garage that they’re all waiting in, causing everyone else to turn in their direction, and Ava can already feel her face heating up, but when she moves to pull her hand away from Sara and cover up her embarrassment the other woman just holds on tighter, unwilling to let Ava slip away. 

There’s a beat of silence for a long moment before Nora chimes in, “You’re foreplay is so fucking weird.” 

“That’s not - it isn’t-” Ava insists.

But stops when Sara jumps in a moment later, “Sounds like someone is a little jealous. Ray whatever you’re doing for this poor woman is clearly not enough.” 

And just like that the topic changes, the focus off of her and instead on everyone teasing and poking at Ray and Nora. Just like that Ava can breathe one again. 

Right before Nate cuts them all off loudly to ask what everyone thinks about splitting one massive pizza, Sara leans just a little bit closer to Ava and says, “You’re welcome,” so that only she can hear.

Setting Ava’s heart off all over again. 

  
  


*

“You know deep dish isn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Sara says. 

It’s not a goodbye really.

Because they’re going to see each other tomorrow.

They get to do this all over again then.

But their group is splitting apart, half of them going in the direction of the parking garage to drive home or to their further away hotels, and half of them planning to just walk across the street to the convention center’s hotel. 

And this is where she’s supposed to say goodbye.

Supposed to say  _ see you tomorrow  _ or something equally cheesy.

But for a moment Ava can’t say anything. 

She didn’t drink, not with a thirty minute drive after this, but Ava almost wishes she did to make  _ this  _ moment easier. She can feel the tension in the air, the way the rest of their friends have moved away and made themselves scarce, like she and Sara are the only two people in the world right now. 

And honestly, when Sara takes a step closer to her, Ava isn’t entirely certain that they aren’t. 

“Am I supposed to take that as a compliment, and not be insulted on my city’s behalf.” 

“I’m just saying,” Sara continues, “If I had to pick, deep dish pizza definitely wouldn’t be my favorite thing about Chicago.” 

“I mean, technically we’re in Rosemont.” 

“Not that point,” Sara replies.

“And what is the point?” 

“You.” 

One word.

So simple.

As if it explained everything. 

But maybe it didn’t have to.

Maybe everything could be explained in the way Sara moves, finally closing the distance between them, pressing up on her toes, a hand at the back of Ava’s neck to pull her closer. To  _ kiss  _ her. 

And  _ Oh _ . 

_ Oh -  _ Kissing Sara somehow manages to be better than everything that she could have imagined. A little awkward if she remembers their friends are around them, and their noses bump for just a second, but it’s  _ Sara  _ and nothing she ever do could be so wrong. 

When Sara finally pulls back it’s with a small smile, and - “I’ve been waiting to do that all day.” 

“I’ve been waiting for months,” Ava admits.

“Then what took you so long?” 

She doesn’t know what to say.

Can’t find the words.

So she kisses Sara again, because she’s right here, and Ava can, and really has there ever been a better reason to kiss someone? 

This time they break apart when one of their friends yell out - “Get a room!”

Which doesn’t sound like the  _ worst  _ idea ever. 

Not anymore. 

“My place is like a thirty minute drive but-” 

“You sure I’m not going to kill you for your Brie autographs in the middle of the night,” Sara teases.

But for once, Ava isn’t nervous about anything at all, “I figure you’re worth the risk.” 


End file.
